It was the Dead Men Walking Derby. The Derby of Doom. Two zombie sides locked in a frightened embrace of mutual destruction.

Relegation-bound Boro’s scrappy 1-0 April victory over a Sunderland side already on the slab was their first win in over four months, a sarcastic final flourish to a season of promise that had spluttered, stuttered and then imploded into recrimination.

The Boro dug-out was staffed with supply teachers, half of the squad were sat in the departure lounge and simmering supporters were divided against themselves over exactly how the blame should be apportioned: the players, Aitor Karanka, the recruitment department, Steve Gibson, boo-magnet Gaston Ramirez and the Gazette were all taking flak.

The hollow victory courtesy of a Marten de Roon goal left traumatised Boro with anorexic hopes of theoretical survival and facing up to a massive summer rebuild and reboot.

The win just delayed the pain of inevitable relegation that bragging rights could not cushion.

But it could have been worse. You could have been a Sunderland fan.

As well as being taunted by a derby defeat, they were braced to finally crash and burn after years of trap-door dancing and feared that while Boro would ‘regroup and go again,’ relegation would send the Black Cats slithering into the abyss.

That was seven months ago. Just 192 days. It was a lifetime ago. Think about how much has changed.

Video Loading

Video Unavailable

Click to playTap to play

The video will start in 8Cancel

Play now

All change at the Riverside

Ramirez was absent, banned after his rash red card at Bournemouth, Antonio Barragan had been sent on a throw in course and Victor Valdes was in isolation with a loosely self-diagnosed niggling rib injury. All three were quickly out of the exit.

Middlesbrough's Gaston Ramirez is sent off after being shown a second yellow card at Bournemouth

Read More

The technical area has been decimated too. It is hard to believe assistant boss Joe Jordan was ever even at the club so fleeting was his presence. His may fly tenure was as transient as Gary McAllister under Gordon Strachan or Alan Smith under Gareth Southgate.

And newly-installed head coach Steve Agnew has disappeared into the ether without a word. The last time he was spotted was in one of those ‘missing’ ads on the side of a milk carton.

And the backroom staff has been swept aside too, not just Victor Orta and the Spanish speaking posse but also Paul Jenkins at the Academy.

Rebuilding, rewiring and rebooting

Meanwhile, 10 new players plus a manager and entire new inner circle has been imported from Elland Road.

The squad has been rebuilt and rewired and explicitly reshaped with promotion in mind.

The defensive framework and the conservative philosophy and methodology of Aitor Karanka had brought success and promotion but was found wanting in the top flight and momentum and morale had ebbed away at the end.

In his post-relegation state of the nation address Steve Gibson said he wanted to see attacking, creative football and he underwrote a £40m plus investment in the team with over £30m of that spent up front.

Boro chairman Steve Gibson (right) and Garry Monk

That didn’t bring instant success. There was a creaky start with a lot of chopping and changing as Monk tried to find the right balance. There have been mixed results.

Some results and performances fell below what would have been expected leading to fans’ frustrations and a lot of questions.

But back-to-back wins have eased that pressure, Boro remain well placed, have a strong squad that keep threatening to ‘click’, and in Britt Assombalonga and Martin Braithwaite they have real match-winners.

There is a sense that with a few results to spark it, the season could quickly ignite for an ambitious club.

The Stadium of Blight

The same can’t be said of Sunderland. Most Mackem fans are braced for a long hard winter of struggle and the battle-scarred veterans of previous slumps will be putting their cash on a second successive relegation.

There was a mass exodus in the summer with 11 of the players involved in April’s dismal derby no longer at the club and very little of the money raised in the fire-sale has been reinvested with just £1.25m spent.

Owner Ellis Short wants out. He has talked to German and Chinese groups but neither went beyond tentative inquiries. The club is loaded with debt, has an unbalanced squad with few saleable assets and is suffering a collective crisis of faith.

Sunderland haven’t won at home in 2017. They are one winless game away from an English record of 20 without victory. In fact they have only been in the lead for three minutes all year at the Stadium of Blight.

Lee Cattermole of Sunderland sinks to his feet after the fourth Ipswich goal

Read More

Since the April meeting, boss David Moyes has walked away and experienced second tier supremo Simon Grayson - not the first choice but probably the best man for the job - was axed this week after four months and 18 games in charge.

That takes the tally to 10 bosses in the nine years since Roy Keane took them into the top flight and six in the last four years since the self-inflicted craziness of Paolo di Canio.

Sam Allardyce almost stopped the rot but jumped ship for an ill-fated England move and Grayson did his best in difficult circumstances. New faces Aiden McGeady and Lewis Grabban are good buys at this level and there are a couple of quality players in the mix.

But the squad - the whole club - seem now seem bereft of confidence and resigned to a terminal spiral of short-termism, chaos and decline.

They are rudderless, in the drop zone and lacking leadership from their absentee owner. There is the stench of decay.

Read More

A barely remembered derby

Things that stand out: there was a poignant pre-match tribute to Ugo Ehiogu. It was Lee Cattermole’s first return but he did little to mark it. And there was some hands-across-the-barricades gallows humour with both sets of fans accepting their fate and claiming that no, we are the worse.

“You’re going down with the Mackems,” sang the visitors. “You’re going down with the Boro,” came the response.

Things that didn’t stand out: the football. It was a poor spectacle of scrappy, nervous, error-strewn play that demonstrated exactly why both sides were getting relegated and even the victorious home fans started drifting away before the whistle.

Boro had to dig in early on then scored against the run of play, and to be fair, it was a good goal.

Marten de Roon celebrates scoring against Sunderland in April (Image: PA)

Adam Clayton knocked a probing ball forward and de Roon peeled off his marker, chested it down then steered past advancing keeper Pickford.

After that it was all feeble slapping and nervous crowding and for long spells Boro had 10 men behind the ball, which at home to such a woeful side was pretty desperate stuff. The whistle couldn’t come quickly enough. The end of the season couldn’t come soon enough.

Since then Boro have recovered some of their poise and started to find some shape and form.

Since then Sunderland have picked up 13 points from 30 games ,and in Robbie Stockdale, will be on their third manager.